


Trade Tongue

by ScribeProtra



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Jewish Character, Twins, fictional religion, gratuitous personal fanon, quiet talks, religious character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 17:56:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17647208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribeProtra/pseuds/ScribeProtra
Summary: A home barred Jew and a deeply lost worshiper of Ashtara have a talk and make a bargain on December 25th.





	Trade Tongue

He hated spending December 25 away from Dinreel. Yeah, Oggie and Maxim made sure he got beer, one mug from each other them. Some years, depending on their money, and the available shops, they would buy him yarn, just like he’d do the same for them on their birthdays.

Well, not yarn specifically. Neither of them was into knitting. But still, something small and cheap.

Still didn’t compare to spending the day with his twin- his twice sister-kin.

But Mechanicsburg was bubbled, locked in time, and no one could get in and out. Not until the Mistress figured out how to free herself. Which meant Filly didn’t really have a good guarded place to go dormant during the winter. Which meant Filly had to go south with other migrating animals. Which meant Dinreel went too.

Dimo supported this plan. Hell, as his new emergency general power he *assigned them* jobs down south. This wasn’t even the first or longest time they hadn’t been able to celebrate together.

He still missed her.

For one thing they got to roll their eyes together about the Yulers and Christians and over the top idiocy the rest of their brothers indulged in. Wasn’t even funny idiocy.

But this year, she was gone and he was here and a General so he had to deal with the stupid holiday. Make sure there would be supplies and decorations and a whole damn party.

So now, he held his beers from Oggie and Maxin in each hand, his surprise yarn hidden up in his hat, he wasn’t needed anymore to make sure everything went well, and was heading back through the caves to his office. He was going to huddle in there, looking over his damn paperwork and those damn maps, trying to think of ways for the horde to do their job.

At least that had been the plan. Except along the way he came across Miss Zeetha, sitting in the hall, looking tired and smelling of loneliness and sorrow.

...She was the Lady’s good friend and teacher. She rode with them and he could do- would do- no less for her then he would any of his kin.

Dimo arranged himself on the opposite side of the walkway, sliding down the wall till he sat across from her. He strained out his feet and let his boots tangle with her own. Miss Zeetha looked up at him, very obviously trying to warn him off. Her eyes were too red rimmed for that to work so he just raised his eyebrows and wordlessly offered her one of his beers.

Miss Zeetha attempted to keep looking scary and mad before sighing and accepting it.

It was a comfortable quiet that settled between them as they both drank. And yeah even if she decided not to tell him about it, he knew, from his own experiences that someone being there was enough to make it better.

“What’s it like, being a twin?” Miss Zeetha suddenly asked.

Dimo thought a bit before asking, “For odders or for me und Dinreel? Cawse ve iz verra odd Hy tink.”

“Odd?” Miss Zeetha asked tilting her head a little.

Dimo waved his beer around, careful not to slosh, “Eh, yah. Ve iz much better now but ve voz verra verra. Hmmmm.” 

He muttered in Yiddish for the right word.

“Hy forgot vot de right vord for it iz. Uh. Vhen hyu iz verra clingy to sumvun vho iz verra clingy back und it iz bad for hyu health.”

“I know that in Skiff but not Romanian,” Miss Zeetha agreed before saying a foreign word. Dimo repeated it, Miss Zeetha corrected his accent, dimo tried again, and they did this till he got it right. He felt very accomplished as she was looking a lot less sad right now.

“Yah, zo. Ve had a verra shitty childhood to-. Hrm, Hyu know how bad de Old Masters were, yah? Heard de stories, yez?”

Miss Zeetha nodded looking interested and not lost in sorrow. Dimo continued, “Imaging a pair of kids, vhos lives vere zo bad dot meeting de Heterodyne und his army vas de best ting to happen to dem in years.”

She stared into the distant, pretty clearly thinking of something as she started looked grossed out and horrified. Dimo shrugged getting her attention back.

“Saved our lives, dey did,” he said, “But ve vos still verra clingy to each odder. Couldn’t handle beink separated for years. Started getting better at hrrrr, Hy tink about ninety? About den.”

“Odder twins, Hy haff seen und met, dey iz de same as eeny odder sib-kin.”

Miss Zeetha’s face had flowed from showing horror to some sort of yearning wistfulness. Dimo… felt a lot like he was missing something very very important here.

“Skiffander and the rest of the Dark Countries really don’t like twins,” Miss Zeetha said looking down at her drink and fiddling with it.

Dimo swallowed and asked, “Ho?”

Miss Zeetha nodded and said, “Yeah. We take our prophecies *very* seriously back home. Mostly cause they always come true.” 

She grinned suddenly looking happy about something, “My cousin fulfilled one once! Was pretty fun time all around. But yeah, back home, there might be a twist, their might be a double meaning, but if a prophecy is spoken by- I don’t think Romanian had an equivalent term- by the holy divine, it *will* come true. Might take a long long while but it’ll happen eventually.”

Dimo thought about this and asked, “How bad iz de prochey for tvins?”

“States they’ll be the end of the line of Skiffander Queens,” was the blunt reply. 

Dimo winced at that. Hooooy yeah no ruler would like someone from *that* kind of thing.

“So Skiff, we have this ceremony when twins are born,” Miss Zeetha continued, “It- it doesn’t translate very well, like kolee dok zumil. Kinda like death, kinda like adoption, kinda like separation. One twin loses their name, their whole person-self, is swaddled in a basket and left in a sacred spot. A couple who wants to adopt then comes by, claims the lost one, renames them and legally, and more importantly *divinely*, the pair are no longer twins.”

“Huh,” Dimo said taking a swallow, “Dot iz a goot vork a round.”

“Hmmm. It helps that no one can really agree on what ‘end the line’ means,” Miss Zeetha said.

“Ho?” Dimo asked.

“Yeah. Could be the obvious thing of like. Skiff falling or getting invaded or something. Could mean we switch to Skiffander Kings or some other way of ruling,” Miss Zeetha explained, “My Mother, she thinks that it means the current Queen will be more like Queen Luehia.”

She paused and then added, seeing Dimo’s confusion, “Our Queens used to be. Hmmm, not unkillable but immortal? They could be slain but they didn’t die of old age.”

“Like uz Jägerkin?”

“Guess so, yeah. Anyway, Queen Luehia was like, thousands of years old when she died fighting the Grey Witch and after that, the secret to her long life was lost. All our Queens since then fade and die like any mortal.”

Dimo nodded, thinking that though, “Und de next vun to find dot secret again vould end de line cawse she vould not step down.”

“Hmmhmmm. Mother keeps being grumpy that no one will keep their twins.”

“Heh. Fair.”

Dimo suddenly remembered something he heard her tell the Lady, way back in Zumzum. He grinned at her and asked, “Zo hyu haff de same problem vit dis holiday as me und Dinreel? Und de odder brodders vho izn’t Christian?”

She looked even more interested, “You don’t celebrate it?”

“Nah. Ve iz Jewish, me und Dinreel. Dere iz about- herm. I dink about sixty odders like uz. Hy just had to deal cawse of de schtupid General business.”

“Hmmm. Was nice of you to let Oggie and Maxim give you gifts.”

He gave her his best ‘I am so tired’ face and said, “Dot iz cawse it is our birthday today too.”

Miss Zeetha’s eyes widened, delight growing and shining in them. She breathed out, “Really?”

He sighed deeply already knowing how this was going to go. She really did fit in with them, liek a sword to its scabbard.

“Oh yez. Ve iz de most unlucky of Jews,” he said glumly.

She laughed at him. Which was annoying but hey. Least she hadn’t even the faintest flicker of sorrow anymore. He carefully set his mug down so he could make a rude gesture with his flesh hand. Which just made Miss Zeetha laugh harder.

He closed his eyes and wiggled more solidly against the wall. Miss Zeetha slowly calmed back down, chuckling and sounding happy.

There was several more quiet minutes of sitting together before Miss Zeetha broke it again.

“The Three Nights of Deep Darkness, were we have feasts and groups of people traveling the streets singing, and the rings are filled with trails and exhibition duels. To help the sun and the light come back. I miss it.”

His eyes were already closed but oh he knew that homesick feeling. In fact- this. He could not find her hometown for her. But he knew some that that helped, at least a little.

“Trade vit me,” he said as he opened his eyes and finished draining his beer.

Miss Zeetha face had scrunched up, confusion wafting off her.

“What?” she asked.

“De fighting, dot iz a secret yah? But de language of Skiff, you can teach odders it, yez?”

“Yeeees,” Miss Zeetha said slowly, “That isn’t a secret. Why?”

“Hy know, at least a leetle biit vot it iz like to miss hyu home,” Dimo said blunt and forward as he was pretty sure she needed, “It helps, speaking de words of home vit sumvun. Iz best vit family, but oh, Hy promise. Iz goot vit friends too.”

Miss Zeetha squinted at him, thinking before relaxing, looking amused and, maybe even, a little be touched, “And what will I get in return?”

“Hy vill teach hyu Yiddish. It iz de language of Jews. Hy haff only taught Oggie und Maxim before dough zo please be patient.”

Miss Zeetha’s eyes got wide for a moment, little flickers of vulnerability and relief dancing across them before she settled back down with a grin. She slammed back the last of her beer and said, “Sound fun! Let’s get started.”

He held out his metal hand, and they pulled each other upt to their feet. He then stepped back and turned towards his office, “Letz!”


End file.
